Background

In the nine decades since the establishment of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the wisdom of creating an entity to manage technology transfer for the benefit of the university and the public has become patently clear.

Since its founding, WARF has processed some 6,000 discoveries from UW–Madison inventors, obtained 1,900 U.S. patents on these innovations and completed more than 1,600 licensing agreements with companies all over the world.

The results of this work lie at the heart of WARF’s mission to promote, encourage and aid scientific investigation and research at UW–Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research. By prudently investing the proceeds from our licensing activities, WARF has provided more than $1 billion to the university to ensure its margin of excellence as a 21st century leader in research, discovery and innovation.